Helpful ship designs that you wish you knew about before!

ISeeYou - biggest platform you can use and load nothing but sensors. 

the biggest version carries 14 subspace sensors and can see the entire huge map.  It cost over 2000 bc.

I used to make specialized "People Mover" colony ships in GalCiv2. These ships never settled new planets they just shuttled people to spread out the population. 

A tiny hull with no components to keep your planets from being invaded by stray transporters. Really, really cheap.

Ignore the highlights - i used this screenshot for a bug report.

Very cool! I will be making one of these badboy's today, I'll call it Edladner's Eye in your honor

This a game mechanic that always sort of eluded me.. I get moving people around to improve another colony, or because that one has too much population pressure and is unhappy... but when I am playing the galactic malevolent turd, I always think to myself "who cares! I will eat your babies if you are non-compliant!"

Ah thats a good one too! So you can just park this little guy ontop of each of your planets and presto, no more worrying about ninja transports??

For maximum population growth you need to spread out your population. It's been years since I played GalCIv2 but pretty sure growth is a percentage based with diminishing returns. A people mover ship will allow you to get your economy up and running faster. This also helps your military since each pop point can be used for invasion in the previous game. 

Approval is another matter. But low approval hurts production and research, again I'm not 100% sure on that point. 

Did those in my 1st Designer session.  But I come from Malfador's Space Empires series, so I'm familiar with the concept of bin-packing ship designs to optimize functionality for cost.

I further specialize my czers and ctors with exactly enough range for the planet they target (I count the hexes), and whether to pay for 1 more engine or not.  Rule of thumb: if it saves 1 turn, then you paid +10 mp (Hyperdrive) to get the colony 1 turn early, which is surely worth it.  By Age of War, my Designer has about 20 different configurations each of czer and ctor, and basically nothing else.

• Double-ctor (several configurations)

Early-game ship design is ... kind of bland.  GC3 is a platform for fleet combats, so there's not much to do in peacetime.

Genre mash-up modding possibilities abound!

• Space trader, c.f. Lavamind's Gazilliionaire.  You build a Trader ship, and race other empires' traders to buy cargos cheap and sell them dear.  It's almost RPG-like, with your ship as a "character".
• University student.  An RPG-like setting, where you role-play a Student, and you go through Schools to gain Skills.  I made up this niche as a totally different Thing To Do in the context of a galactic empire at peace (i.e. when I got tired of the space trading niche).
• Rock star?  Maybe you're a band, and you travel from gig to gig.  Could dovetail with GC3 tourism improvements, e.g. you hope someday to sell out a Stadium.

It'd be funny as heck to twist GC3 into a peacetime game-within-a-game.  Wars would be punctuation that temporarily interrupt service ...

take one of my designs for instance, a massive Sovereign class ship that's well balanced bordering on invincible. It can have many versions because I leave some space empty when designing.

Some versions are more effective for a particular hull though, like the guardians.

Rapid response (version with more engines)

Guardians (version with just weapons and defense)

Recon (version with more sensors and life support, and maybe engines.

Invader (version with enhanced life support for crosses map. Although mine vary in focus for the situation and rely on a fleet.

So remember to always leave room for improvement on your designs. And specialize you're ships along with your planets!

Second, remember to always take a bigger hull when you can, you get extra HP and you don't have to use the extra space if you don't want too.

DARCA ;- )

That reminds me of those scenarios in Civ 3(?), where you played the hero going from town to town and saving it/doing stuff/meeting the local ladies

Interesting concept for a mod though, I can see the Drengi fleet chasing after your rock band because their metal concert wasn't brutal enough

Benevolent: You host a charity rock concert to benefit starving Stardock Developers.

+10 Benevolence, -50 Credits, increased attendance at your next concert by 5.

Pragmatic: You put on a show that caters to your local audience tastes'.

+10 Pragmatism, +30% Revenue from concert, and:

[IF Altarian Audience] Hitting those angelic high notes causes your throat to be sore, unable to perform another concert for 3 turns.

[IF Human Audience] Humans love to complain about everything, lose 10% Popularity for 3 turns.

[IF Drengi Audience] One of your band members lost a limb because they catered to a Drengi's taste quite literally, he will recover in hospital for 3 turns.

Malevolent: You rent a bunch of bats and all band members eat their heads on stage.

+10 Malevolence, +30% Revenue from concert, +15% Popularity, Benevolent civilizations ban your concerts for 10 turns.

I really like this idea, and I'm a bit ashamed that I never though of it myself. I'm going to give something similar a try in my next match. 2000bc is actually quite cheap compared to the cost of a base military station with even just 3 sensor improvements (4 constructors). It's mobile, won't be suseptible to enemy "influence," and can be protected in a fleet.

Galactic event: Wrong band arrives at rock concert.

Instead of the 'Angelic Soothing Singers Collective' the band 'Disaster Area' performs their most successful concert ever. 10% of the population of the planet on which the concert is held dies. Damage and medical costs increase planetary maintenance by 10% permanently.

In the current beta, if you had not already designed a constructor with 2+ modules in beta 1, you cannot make one. Try it with the Krynn.

The ultimate culture bomb!

"That's us.  The Angelic Blues Brothers Singers."

Are you on a mission from God?

On-topic, has anyone made an ultimate "tank ship" that is good at simply drawing lots of fire and surviving to tell the tale? I would really love to see some of these to include them as my vanguards, ones that travel ahead of my fleets to make AI's waste their attack turns.

don't try that strategy in multiplayer ok? You'll lose.

I am going to do it to you now! You'll never see it coming!!

The AI might fall for it though.. mebbe..

Excellent reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! +1